A fleet of tankers carrying millions of barrels of oil is backed up off the coast of France as strikes over pension reform reverberate.
Ships with at least 14 million barrels of crude are currently floating off the country’s shores, according to tanker tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. With strikes hampering port operations, supplies are being disrupted and some ships carrying fuel have sailed to other countries.
France is heavily dependent on crude imports, but the rate of arrivals has more than halved so far this month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from analyst firm Kpler. The country’s domestic fuel production from its oil refineries is simultaneously crushed by the strikes.
Union officials representing workers at TotalEnergies SE and ExxonMobil Corp., which between them run the vast majority of France’s fuel-making plants, said there is currently no end date for the weeks-long strikes. let’s go.
Of the crude currently floating, about 11 million barrels are located near Fos, a port on the country’s south coast where, along with neighboring Lavera, major oil terminals are not expected to carry out any loading operations of tankers at least until the end of the month. .
France has important strategic reserves of fuel, some of which it has been releasing to avoid shortages.
Traders have been trying to resell crude from Kazakhstan that would likely have entered the French refining system. However, strong Asian demand for barrels has prevented prices from falling.
–With assistance from Sharon Cho, Sherry Su, Bill Lehane and Rachel Graham.
Photo Credit – iStock.com/Kachura Oleg
